While the percentage of Democrats supporting gay marriage remained steady, there was a slight
uptick among Republicans and a larger increase among independents. The new findings, which mirror
public-opinion shifts across the nation, represent a reversal since the Quinnipiac Poll of December
2012, when 47 percent of Ohioans opposed gay marriage and 45 percent supported it.

“Given that younger voters support same-sex marriage almost 3-1, it would seem to be just a
matter of time,” Peter Brown, the Connecticut university’s assistant polling director, said in a
release. The poll focused on the topic of gay marriage, not the proposed amendment to overturn the
2004 amendment to the Ohio Constitution that restricts marriage to one man and one woman.

Two groups are pushing to overturn the 2004 amendment. They have a difference of opinion on
timing, with FreedomOhio pushing to put the issue on the ballot this November, while Why Marriage
Matters Ohio argues the issue would have a better chance of passage in 2016, a presidential
election year.

“The polling continues to demonstrate that Ohio is trending in the right direction for the
freedom-to-marry ballot issue,” said Ian James of FreedomOhio. “You can see Ohio is ready for
marriage equality.”

But Michael Premo, of Why Marriage Matters Ohio, said Ohio will be ready — in two years.

“We are very excited about these numbers. ... It reaffirms our opinion that we need a public
education campaign leading up to 2016.”

A go or no-go decision on the fall ballot must be made by July 2, the state filing deadline.

Chris Long, president of the Ohio Christian Alliance, said his group stands for “traditional
marriage whatever public opinion is.”

“Those who want to overturn Ohio’s constitutional amendment on marriage can put it on the
ballot, and it will be defeated,” he said. “We are still traditional people and support traditional
marriage.”

The poll also asked Ohioans about marijuana.

“Ohioans narrowly favor legalizing pot for personal use, with women opposed while men support
the idea. Almost 9 in 10 in both genders think marijuana should be legal for medical uses,” Brown
said.

Respondents to the confidential poll also were asked if they had used marijuana, with 44 percent
saying they had and 55 percent saying they had not. Men were more likely to have used marijuana
than women (53 percent to 35 percent) and users were most prominent in the 50-to-64 age group.

“Instead of wasting law-enforcement resources on raids and busts that never seem to have an
impact on marijuana’s price or availability, we should follow Colorado’s lead by taxing and
regulating marijuana,” said Dan Riffle, a former Vinton County prosecutor who is director of
federal policies for the Marijuana Policy Project.

There are three marijuana and hemp ballot issues proposed in Ohio, plus two bills introduced in
the General Assembly.

Quinnipiac’s telephone poll interviewed 1,370 registered Ohio voters via both land lines and
cellphones from Feb. 12 through Feb. 16. It has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 2.7
percentage points. The respondents in the sample were 33 percent independents, 32 percent
Democrats, 28 percent Republicans and 7 percent other.